Anchorage Daily News

A Ketchikan jury correctly convicted a Greenpeace ship's captain of criminal negligence for sailing in Alaska waters without the proper oil spill response plan, the state appeals court has ruled.

The opinion partly cancels a 2005 decision by a Ketchikan judge to overturn guilty verdicts against Greenpeace Inc. and Arctic Sunrise Capt. Arne Sorensen of misdemeanor charges.

The higher court, however, agreed that District Judge Kevin Miller rightly set aside other guilty verdicts against Greenpeace and Sorensen that stemmed from a visit the environmental activist group made to Southeast Alaska in 2004 to protest logging in the Tongass National Forest.

In its 24-page ruling, the appeals court directed the lower court to reinstate the jury's verdict that found Sorensen guilty of operating the ship without the contingency plan on July 14, 2004. Sorensen retained his right to file post-trial motions, so the case was remanded for further proceedings.

The case has not been scheduled back in court yet, said Ken Rosenstein, an assistant attorney general. Whatever the outcome, it will be subject to further appeal, he said.

Greenpeace attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment. Sorensen's attorney, James Gilmore of Port Townsend, Wash., said he had not seen the ruling and could not comment. Sorensen lives in Denmark, according to Gilmore, and was not immediately accessible.

At the time of its anti-logging campaign, the ship was carrying more than 70,000 gallons of "petroleum products," according to District Court documents.

In Alaska, non-tank vessels larger than 400 gross tons must file an oil-spill response plan application five days before entering state waters. The Arctic Sunrise was almost 1,000 gross tons.

The state pursued criminal charges after the vessel departed from Ketchikan before the paperwork was finalized. Greenpeace argued that the lack of documents was a paperwork gaffe that was quickly corrected, saying the group was being unfairly targeted in retaliation for its logging opposition.

In its May 2005 verdicts, the Ketchikan jury convicted Greenpeace and Sorensen of two counts of operating a ship without spill contingency plans on July 12 and July 14, 2004.

Three months later, Miller cleared Greenpeace and Sorensen of the charges, saying that the evidence did not show they acted with criminal negligence.

The appeals court last week agreed with Miller in all but one of the overturned verdicts. But the higher court concluded there was sufficient evidence of criminal negligence by Sorensen, saying he operated the Arctic Sunrise on July 14, 2004, even after learning the vessel was out of compliance and he had been advised to return to Ketchikan.

Sorensen had argued that it was not feasible to turn back because visibility was poor and the vessel was in a narrow passage.

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